US to pledge $770 million in aid for Lebanon

[Purveyor]

By Arshad Mohammed

PARIS, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The United States will pledge nearly $770 million in aid to help rebuild Lebanon and bolster its embattled Prime Minister Fouad Siniora in his power struggle with Hezbollah, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

The money, which requires U.S. congressional approval, will fund budget support, military equipment and projects to help rebuild Lebanese infrastructure shattered in last year's war between Israel and Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah.


"The president will request of the Congress $770 million in support for Lebanon," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters as she flew to Paris for an international aid donors' meeting on Thursday that could yield billions of dollars for Lebanon.

The United States hopes the money, which comes on top of $230 million Washington pledged last year, will strengthen Siniora, a Sunni Muslim. Hezbollah, a Shi'ite Muslim party, is seeking to oust his Western-backed government.

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http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2007-01-24T215343Z_01_L24393380_RTRIDST_0_LEBANON-DONORS-USA-UPDATE-2.XML&rpc=66&type=qcna

[tchunter]

1. if that money is going to the gov't 10% will be going to hezbollah

hezbollah has 14 out of the 140 seats in the lebanese parliament

[Robbien]

2. your point being?

Hezbollah is a political party as well as a military movement. The political party is the one who is mainly repairing the damage all the bombing caused.

Demonizing the name just gets us deeper in the hole.

[peacetalksforall]

3. We gave Israel the go-ahead to destroy the infrastructure of

Lebanon and are now sending 8770 mil of taxpayer money to pay Halliburton or a Cheney friend company?

How much money to we send to compensate the deaths of human mothers, fathers, children?

Way to go WH - way to go JINSA AIPAC AEI PNAC - way to go.

[Megahurtz]

8. And We Funded Isreal to Do It Too!

:grr:

[brentspeak]

11. Didn't Lebanon have a civil war?

Israel played some vile parts in that war, but most of the killing and the destruction was committed by the Lebanese themselves.

[peacetalksforall]

12. At the time, they told us that Hezbollah kidnapped an Israeil soldier

and it all went tit for tat again until it belw up big time. I don't remember Lebanon blowing up their own bridges, ports, and other rinfrastructure. The destruction came from Israel. A country with the best military in the region, the best weapons including nuclear - and Lebanon was just getting 'repaired' from the last destruction - over many years. There were border problems ... again ... and we took out Lebanon.

A U.S./U.K. = Israel agreement - they wipe out Lebanon and we wipe out Iran?

[ohio2007]

13. they still hold them hostage.

Maybe some of that money....
nah,
If Hezbollah get the govt to quit like they said, then how much will we have to pony up?

[brentspeak]

16. "I don't remember Lebanon blowing up their own bridges..."

Well, if you need any reminding, here's something to jog your memory:

[peacetalksforall]

17. Are you reminding us of what you think Israel or Lebanon did?

Just asking because there seems to be different takes on who did it?

[brentspeak]

19. Those are scenes of what was left of Lebanon -- before Israel even crossed the border

[peacetalksforall]

20. If so, I didn't really get accurate information. I'll try to learn and figure.

out why I thought I read that it was Israel bombs.

[The Stranger]

23. You may have received accurate information, as Israel was in Lebanon for 19 years

and left only six years ago.

[The Stranger]

22. Israel has been crossing the border for decades and occupied Lebanon for 19 years.

So claiming that Israel had nothing to do with those scenes is laughable.

[brentspeak]

29. As usual, your posts make absolutely no sense

Those photographs were taken before 1980 or of buildings that were destroyed prior to 1980; if Israel was in Lebanon for 19 years, and didn't leave until six years ago, can your math skills figure out year that puts you?

[ohio2007]

14. there was a three way Civil war when Arafat was holed up in the burbs

of Beirut. That was back in the late 1970's/early 80's.
Thats when Israeli tanks blitzed the city (early 80 )and the UN followed up and put peacekeepers in the city.Beirut had its own "Green Zone" I recall.
If you know your history, you know what then happened to the French and US peacekeepers.

[JCMach1]

21. I was in Lebanon just a few weeks before the IDF attacked

and Lebanon had pulled-itself up by the bootstraps. It looked like a real country again. Virtually ALL the Civil War damage had been repaired... the infrastructure anyway.

[peacetalksforall]

25. They say Saudi Arabia funded much of it - only to be destroyed

again last summer-fall. Hard to believe they would do that to themselves as stated above.

[JCMach1]

26. only if it was old civil war pics... as I said things were

very much 'normal' in Lebanon while I was there... I was even the the Bekaa valley with no difficulties at all. All of that was shot to hell by the war.

[WHAT]

27. Now they need money to service the debt...

and they don't have anything to show for it. What a racket!

[judaspriestess]

4. great while the minimum wage increased gets

stalled.

[Occulus]

5. Instead, it should be noted, to those affected by Katrina. n/t

[judaspriestess]

6. you are indeed correct on that one

where is the outrage?

[Robbien]

9. The outrage is all over the place

marches, boycots, protests, etc. are happening all over the place, all the time. It just doesn't make the news.

When you ask where is the outrage it implies there is none. You really should be asking the media why it isn't reporting all the outrage.

[Megahurtz]

7. There Goes Our Money - AGAIN.

:nuke:

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[praeclarus]

15. this is good news...

... it must mean NOLA is all squared away and we
can start looking elsewhere for people to help.

[peacetalksforall]

18. Exactly.

[SayWhatYo]

24. That's a lot of money....

[blues90]

28. This is insane

It was bush who allowed this to continue and now they offer funding and they sold the damn bombs to Israel . What about sending the funds to the Miss gulf coast .

Of course this is a pledge which means nothing really , same as the pledge for aids or NO's